Cruise, Spielberg commit to WAR OF THE WORLDS

Film replaces MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 3 for next summer

By Patrick Sauriol     August 12, 2004
Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Both MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 3 and Steven Spielberg's untitled 1972 terrorist pictures are on hold, but that's alright: come next summer the Martians will be invading movie theaters.

After experiencing the loss of director Joe Carnahan on M:I 3, producer/star Tom Cruise has put the second sequel to his spy franchise on hold. As we broke exclusively last month on this site, The Hollywood Reporter states that ALIAS creator J.J. Abrams will make his directorial feature film debut on M:I 3 when it begins shooting next year.

After encountering script problems, Steven Spielberg has also delayed the production of his 1972 Munich Summer Olympics picture (working title VENGEANCE) to allow writer Tony Kushner tp perform a rewrite. While that screenplay is being tweaked, Spielberg will move on to helm THE WAR OF THE WORLDS for Paramount Pictures. The studio has been in development for a couple of years on a new WotW film, with Spielberg attached to helm and Cruise to star. Now that the schedules of both gentlemen have been cleared up, Cruise will get to star in the movie, Spielber has a new directing gig to prepare for and Paramount Pictures is happy because they now have a replacement for M:I 3 for next summer.

THE WAR OF THE WORLDS screenplay was written by David Koepp, who also penned JURASSIC PARK: THE LOST WORLD for Spielberg. Based on the classic H.G. Wells science fiction novel first published in the late 19th century, Spielberg's WAR will be updated and set in the modern day. Filming is now scheduled to begin in November.


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